Safety Pilot

The loss of Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330, over the Atlantic—presumably because of a thunderstorm entanglement—is a stark reminder that thunderstorms are to be avoided at all costs. How could an airliner fall victim to such a fate? We’ll know eventually, or there will be endless speculation because the unrecovered data recorders reside in Davy Jones’ locker.

Air Safety Foundation President Bruce Landsberg has served the association since 1992. Looking at some of the new aircraft—and the same old accident causes—got me to thinking again about how good engineering can really assist in not depending so much on the training or the human memory, neither of which is particularly robust.

Bruce Landsberg was named president of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation in January 2009. The NTSB recently issued an urgent request to the FAA to immediately ground all Zenair CH 601XL light sport aircraft.

Bruce Landsberg was named president of the Air Safety Foundation in February. The great football coach Vince Lombardi used to exhort his Super Bowl-winning Green Bay Packers that “Winning isn’t everything—it’s the only thing.” That’s fine for professional sports, but shouldn’t “safety” replace “winning” as what pilots, and the agencies that oversee them, should be thinking? However, the FAA is charged with enforcement to be used when more collaborative methods for safety fail.

Bruce Landsberg has logged more than 6,000 flight hours and holds multiple ratings. What a difference a day makes! It’s axiomatic in the accident investigation business that the wreckage is usually picked up in good weather.

Bruce Landsberg is the executive director of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation. It was three years ago this month that a Southwest Airlines (SWA) Boeing 737-700 slid off the end of Runway 31C after landing at Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) on a snowy evening.